7 


UMR* 


MORSE-  STEt»HC»» 


HENRY  MORSE  STEPHENS  COLLECTION 

PAMPHLETS 

ON 
CALIFORNIA. 


1.  Brown,  John  Leander.  Earthquake 

blessings.   1906 

2.  Chapman,  Charles  E.   The  Alt  a 

California  supply  ships, 
1773-76.   1915 

3.  Davidson,  George.   The 

Discovery  of  Humboldt  Bay, 
California.   1891 

4.  Davis,  John  P.   The  History 

of  California.   1915 

5.  Holway,  Ruliff  S.   The  Effect 

of  seven  years1  erosion  on 
the  California  fault  line  of 
1906.   1914 

6.  Hunt,  Nancy  A.  By  Ox- team  to 

California.   1916 

7.  Miller,  E.  I.   A  New  departure  in 

county  government.   1913 

8.  Southern  Pacific  Company.   San 

Francisco,  the  imperishable. 


§68552 


s^> 

& 


9,   Teggart,  Frederick  J.   The 
Approaches  to  California, 
1912 

10.  Woolley,  Lell  Hawley. 

California  1849-1913.   1913 


THE 

HISTORY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

BY 

JOHN  F.  DAVIS 

oAn  Address  delivered  by  the  Hon.  John  F.  Davis 

Grand  President  of  the  T^ative  Sons  of  the  Golden  West, 

before  the  Panama-Pacific  Historical  Congress 

of  the  American  Historical  Association,  at 

tive  Sons'  Hall,  San  Francisco, 

Thursday,  July  22, 1915 


REPRINTED  FROM 

"THE  PACIFIC  OCEAN  IN  HISTORY" 

BY  H.  MORSE  STEPHENS  &  HERBERT  E.  BOLTON 

THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS,  NEW  YORK 


HBMftY i 


THE  HISTORY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
JOHN  F.  DAVIS 

ONE  great  difference  between  the  history  of  the  commonwealths 
on  the  eastern  seaboard  and  California  arises  out  of  the  fact  that 
the  colonies  out  of  which  they  grew  were  in  existence  so  short  a 
time  as  colonies  before  they  became  independent  states.  One 
result  of  this  is  that  the  period  during  which  their  history  was  a 
part  of  European  history,  or  dependent  upon  European  history, 
was  comparatively  short,  while  their  history  as  independent  com- 
monwealths is,  comparatively  speaking,  their  real  history.  Not 
only  was  their  colonial  history  comparatively  short,  but  the 
control  of  their  own  affairs  was,  even  during  their  colonial  periods, 
so  intimately  their  own,  that  their  history  was  in  only  a  very  slight 
degree,  if  at  all,  dependent  upon  the  events  of  European  history, 
or  upon  the  plans  and  schemes  of  European  diplomacy.  What- 
ever relation  there  may  have  been  was  snapped  in  1776,  and  from 
the  end  of  the  Revolution  their  affairs  have  been  dependent 
almost  entirely  upon  American  issues,  and  a  recital  of  their  history 
becomes  rational  and  interesting  without  a  concordant  knowledge 
of  European  history  to  furnish  a  key. 

With  California  history,  on  the  other  hand,  back  of  1821,  the 
date  of  the  establishment  of  Mexico's  independence  from  Spain, 
the  whole  story  is  one  of  European  history,  of  European  govern- 
mental plans  and  policies,  and  not  until  that  date  did  its  history 
become  in  any  sense  American.  The  result  is  that  a  history  of 
events  on  these  western  shores  before  that  date  needs  a  complete 
knowledge  of  concordant  European  history  to  furnish  the  key. 
Take,  for  instance,  the  splendid  work  of  the  navigators :  unless 
we  have  the  informing  knowledge  of  what  went  on  behind  the 
scenes,  in  Europe  at  a  corresponding  period,  our  history  of  the 
struggle  of  those  interesting  centuries,  no  matter  how  heroic, 

83 


84  THE  PACIFIC  OCEAN  IN  HISTORY 

becomes  a  mere  recital  of  events,  and  therefore  somewhat  dry  to 
an  audience  looking  for  the  mainsprings  of  civic  and  political  life 
and  action.  What  would  be  thought  of  a  life  of  Columbus  that 
consisted  only  of  the  daily  logs  of  the  Santa  Maria  and  the  other 
two  ships  on  the  first  voyage  and  the  logs  of  the  ships  upon  the 
other  voyages,  with  all  the  accompanying  history  of  Spain  —  the 
struggle  and  triumph  at  the  Court  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella, 
the  disputes  before  the  councils  of  the  nobles,  La  Rabida,  the 
correspondence  with  Toscanelli,  the  intrigues  of  diplomacy,  and 
all  the  rest  of  it  —  omitted  ?  And  it  is  precisely  this  background 
in  full  detail  that  we  need  to  vivify  the  narrative  of  California 
history  before  the  Mexican  revolution,  and  the  Academy  of 
Pacific  Coast  History  at  Berkeley  and  the  Professors  of  the 
Department  of  Spanish-American  History  at  the  University  of 
California,  are  entitled  to  the  thanks  of  the  American  Historical 
Association  and  of  all  scientific  historians  and  to  the  support  of 
all  our  people  because  they  have  undertaken  in  archives  and 
monasteries  and  church  records  and  chancelleries  the  research 
necessary  to  supply  the  need. 

And  yet  —  even  with  the  documents  we  already  have  —  the 
early  history  of  the  world-drama  on  this  ocean  and  on  these 
shores  has  begun  to  unfold,  and  at  the  risk  of  being  somewhat 
"woodeny"  for  the  reasons  I  have  stated,  I  shall  attempt,  before 
going  on  to  the  vital  things  which  we  do  understand,  to  call  your 
attention  to  a  few  outstanding  objective  facts  of  the  early  story 
of  this  Coast.  And,  first  of  all,  the  name  "  California." 

Christopher  Columbus,  in  one  of  his  reports  to  his  sovereigns, 
gave  the  name  of  the  "Terrestrial  Paradise"  to  the  beautiful  mesa 
region  near  the  head  waters  of  the  Orinoco  River,  in  what  was 
afterward  called  Colombia,  in  South  America.  Montalvo's 
charming  fairy  tale,  entitled  The  Deeds  of  Esplandidn,  the  Son 
of  Amadis  of  Gaul,  was  published  in  Spain  as  early  as  1510, 
eighteen  years  after  the  discovery  of  America,  and  the  thrilling 
romance  was  the  story  of  its  day. 

"Know  then/'  reads  the  story,  "that  on  the  right  hand  of  the 
Indies  there  is  an  island  called  California,  very  close  to  the  side 
of  the  Terrestrial  Paradise,  and  it  was  peopled  by  black  women, 
without  any  man  among  them,  for  they  lived  in  the  fashion  of 


THE  HISTORY  OF  CALIFORNIA  85 

Amazons.  They  were  of  strong  and  hardened  bodies,  of  ardent 
courage  and  great  force.  The  island  was  the  strongest  in  the 
world  from  its  steep  rocks  and  great  cliffs.  Their  arms  were 
all  of  gold,  and  so  was  the  harness  of  the  wild  beasts  which  they 
tamed  and  rode.  Now,  in  the  whole  island,  there  was  no  metal 
but  gold.  They  also  had  many  ships,  in  which  they  made 
war  and  brought  home  to  their  island  abundant  plunder ;  and  by 
reason  of  its  rocky  shores  and  steep  cliffs,  there  was  no  island 
in  any  sea  stronger  than  this  island  of  California,  nor  so  strong. 
In  this  island,  called  California,  there  were  many  griffins, 
on  account  of  the  great  ruggedness  of  the  country  and  its 
infinite  host  of  wild  beasts,  such  as  never  were  seen  in  any  other 
part  of  the  world.  Every  man  who  landed  on  these  islands 
was  immediately  devoured  by  these  griffins."  Of  this  wonder- 
land of  fable,  where  precious  gems  were  in  great  abundance  and 
where  the  only  metal  was  gold,  Calafia  was  queen,  and  after  her 
the  island  was  named.  Of  her  it  was  said  that  she  was  "very 
large  in  person,  the  most  beautiful  of  them  all,  of  blooming  years, 
and  in  her  thoughts  desirous  of  achieving  great  things,  strong  of 
limb  and  of  great  courage,  more  than  any  of  those  who  had  filled 
her  throne  before  her." 

That  the  name  had  been  given  to  the  country  by  Cortes  was 
known  to  historians,  but  the  source  whence  he  had  obtained  it 
had  long  been  a  baffling  question.  For  the  discovery  of  this 
long  forgotten  romance  and  the  final  solution  of  the  derivation  of 
the  name  California,  the  world  is  indebted  to  the  patient  research 
and  the  brilliant  scholarship  of  Edward  Everett  Hale. 

No  matter  what  credit  of  discovery  France  may  compel  in 
Canada  and  on  the  Mississippi,  or  England  and  Holland  may 
compel  on  the  Atlantic  coast,  Spain  was  the  undisputed  pioneer 
of  the  Pacific.  Columbus  was  an  Italian,  but  he  sailed  in  the 
employ  and  under  the  colors  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella.  Magellan 
and  Cabrillo  were  Portuguese,  but  they  sailed  in  the  service  of 
Spain  beneath  the  standard  of  Castile  and  Leon.  Ponce  de 
Leon,  De  Soto,  Narvaez,  Balboa,  Pizarro,  Cortes,  Maldonado, 
Grijalva,  Mendoza,  Ulloa,  Ferrelo,  Cermeno,  Vizcaino,  Galvez, 
Portola,  Anza,  —  all  were  Spaniards  in  the  employ  of  the  Spanish 
crown.  The  first  circumnavigation  of  the  globe  by  Magellan  and 


86  THE  PACIFIC  OCEAN  IN  HISTORY 

his  companions,  after  an  expedition  lasting  eleven  hundred  and 
twenty-four  days,  John  W.  Draper  has  called  "  the  greatest  achieve- 
ment in  the  history  of  the  human  race."  One  of  the  truest  of  our 
modern  critics,  Charles  F.  Lummis,  has  said :  "  We  love  man- 
hood ;  and  the  Spanish  pioneering  of  the  Americas  was  the  largest, 
longest,  and  most  marvellous  feat  of  manhood  in  all  history." 
And  the  discovery  of  California  is  as  legitimate  an  offspring  of 
Spanish  pioneering  activity  as  any  other  section  of  the  Pacific 
Coast. 

The  early  history  of  this  coast  is  of  a  relative  antiquity  not 
always  realized.  A  mere  statement  of  dates  does  not  always 
make  the  point  clear.  "A  hundred  years  before  John  Smith  saw 
the  spot  on  which  was  planted  Jamestown,"  says  H.  H.  Bancroft, 
"thousands  from  Spain  had  crossed  the  high  seas,  achieving 
mighty  conquests,  seizing  large  portions  of  the  two  Americas  and 
placing  under  tribute  their  peoples."  Balboa  discovered  the 
Pacific  Ocean  two  hundred  and  seventy-six  years  before  the  French 
Revolution  began.  Cabrillo  sailed  into  San  Diego  harbor  four 
years  before  Martin  Luther  died.  Sir  Francis  Drake  careened  the 
Golden  Hind  under  the  lee  of  Point  Reyes  before  Shakespeare 
had  learned  his  alphabet.  Junipero  Serra  founded  our  Mission 
of  St.  Francis  of  Assisi  in  the  same  year  that  the  Liberty  Bell 
rang  out  the  Declaration  of  Independence  in  Independence  Hall. 

The  past  of  California  possesses  a  wealth  of  romantic  interest, 
a  variety  of  contrast,  a  novelty  of  resourcefulness  and  an  intrinsic 
importance  that  enthralls  the  imagination.  The  Spanish  explora- 
tion initiated  by  Cortes  and  afterwards  revived  by  Galvez,  a  mar- 
vellous drama  of  world-politics  on  these  western  shores,  the  civil- 
ization and  colonization  by  the  missions  of  the  Franciscan  fathers 
and  the  presidios  of  the  army,  the  meteoric  visit  of  Sir  Francis 
Drake  and  his  brother  freebooters,  the  ominous  encroachments 
of  the  Russian  outposts,  the  decades  of  the  pastoral  life  of  the 
haciendas  and  its  princely  hospitality  culminating  in  "  the  splendid 
idle  forties,"  the  petty  political  controversies  of  the  Mexican 
regime  and  the  play  of  plot  and  counterplot  "before  the  Gringo 
came,"  the  secret  diplomatic  movements  of  the  United  States  to 
ensure  the  blocking  of  possible  Russian,  French,  and  English 
intrigue,  the  excitement  of  the  conquest  and  the  governmental 


THE  HISTORY  OF  CALIFORNIA  87 

problems  of  the  interregnum  following  the  Mexican  war,  the 
story  of  the  discovery  of  gold  and  its  world-thrilling  incidents  and 
of  the  hardship  and  courage  of  the  emigrant  trail,  the  constitutional 
convention  at  Colton  Hall  and  the  unique  method  of  the  State's 
admission  into  the  Union,  the  era  of  the  Yankee  clipper  ships, 
the  strenuous  fight  to  save  the  state  to  the  cause  of  freedom  cul- 
minating in  the  Broderick-Terry  duel,  —  these  and  later  civic 
events  of  equal  intensity  and  importance  make  a  story  absolutely 
kaleidoscopic  in  its  contrasts  and  variety,  impossible  to  cover 
within  the  limitations  of  an  evening  address. 

Gold  was  the  lure  of  the  first  Spanish  expeditions  and  dis- 
coveries in  California.  When,  in  1513,  Balboa  first  gazed  upon 
the  Pacific  Ocean  —  "silent,  upon  a  peak  in  Darien"  —  Pizarro, 
the  conqueror  of  Peru,  stood  at  his  side.  "The  accursed  thirst  of 
gold"  cost  the  Incas  their  treasures  and  their  civilization.  When, 
in  1519,  Cortes  burned  his  ships  at  Vera  Cruz,  in  order  that  there 
might  be  no  retreat,  the  mines,  the  treasures  and  the  palaces  of 
Montezuma  and  the  Incas  were  the  prizes  to  be  won.  Moreover, 
an  age  that  had  seen  and  read  the  reports  of  the  marvellous  wealth 
of  Peru  and  New  Spain  (as  Mexico  was  then  called)  could  easily 
believe  any  story  of  marvellous  riches  that  might  be  told.  No 
sooner  had  Cortes  completed  the  conquest  of  Mexico  than  rumors 
of  riches  in  the  north  led  to  preparations  for  its  exploration. 

Many  were  the  expeditions  to  the  north  attempted  by  Cortes. 
He  first  built  four  ships  at  Zacatula,  but  they  were  burned  before 
launching.  After  five  years  four  more  ships  were  built  and 
launched,  but  intrigue  at  home  prevented  the  sailing  of  more  than 
one,  the  ship  commanded  by  Maldonado,  which  did  not  quite 
reach  Lower  California,  but  returned  to  Zacatula  with  the  usual 
accounts  of  fertile  lands  and  precious  metals.  Two  new  ships 
built  by  Cortes  left  Acapulco  in  1532  but  were  doomed  to  failure. 
Finally  two  more  ships  were  built  by  Cortes  and  were  sent  out 
from  Tehuantepec  in  1533,  one  under  Mendoza  and  the  other 
under  Grijalva.  Mendoza's  crew  mutinied  and  killed  their  captain, 
but  the  mate,  Fortun  Jimenez,  continued  the  voyage  until  they 
discovered  what  they  considered  an  island.  Jimenez  and  twenty  of 
his  men  were  killed  by  the  Indians  upon  attempting  to  land,  and 
the  survivors  of  the  crew  escaped  to  the  eastern  shores  of  the 


88  THE  PACIFIC  OCEAN  IN  HISTORY 

water,  where  the  ship  was  seized,  and  the  few  remaining  survivors 
of  this  latest  disaster  finally  brought  to  Cortes  the  news  of  the 
discovery.  So  it  was  Fortun  Jimenez  on  the  ship  Conception  that 
first  discovered  the  mysterious  island.  Cortes  then  built  still 
other  ships,  and  in  1535  himself  sailed  with  over  one  hundred  men 
for  the  Bay  of  Santa  Cruz,  on  the  newly  discovered  "island," 
which  had  itself  been  named  Santa  Cruz.  The  exact  date  when 
he  gave  it  the  name  of  California  is  not  known,  but  it  is  known 
that  by  1540  it  bore  that  name. 

On  this  supposed  island  Cortes  attempted  to  plant  a  colony, 
but  the  scheme  was  not  successful.  The  suffering  of  the  colonists 
were  appalling,  the  death-rate  large,  and  the  pitiful  remnant 
"cursed  Cortez,  his  island,  his  bay,  and  his  discovery."  Heart- 
sick at  the  sight  of  so  much  suffering,  and  failing  to  find  the  re- 
puted gold  he  had  spent  a  fortune  in  seeking,  he  abandoned  the 
enterprise  and  returned  to  Mexico  proper.  The  first  attempt  at 
colonization  in  the  Californias  had  failed.  Poor  Cortes!  He 
may  have  been  the  first,  but  he  probably  will  not  be  the  last  to 
"go  broke"  hunting  for  gold  mines  in  the  Californias. 

Like  every  man  inoculated  with  the  gold  fever,  however,  he 
was  loath  to  let  go.  Three  years  later  he  sent  Francisco  de  Ulloa 
to  explore  the  northern  coasts.  Ulloa  first  skirted  the  eastern 
coast  of  the  gulf,  and  then,  returning,  sailed  up  the  outer  coast 
as  far  as  29°  56'  north  latitude,  thereby,  at  least,  proving  Lower 
California  to  be  a  peninsula  instead  of  an  island,  though  for 
generations  it  continued  to  be  described  and  delineated  as  an 
island  in  many  official  accounts  and  maps  of  the  period. 

Time  will  not  permit  me  to  relate  the  fascinating  narrative  of 
the  frightful  hardships  of  the  great  expeditions  of  Alarcon  by  sea, 
up  the  gulf  of  California  and  the  Colorado  River,  and  of  Coronado 
by  land,  in  search  of  those  will-o'-the-wisps,  the  fabled  Seven 
Cities  of  Cibola  and  the  mythical  Kingdom  of  Quivira,  the  latter 
at  one  time  supposed  to  be  on  the  coast  of  California  in  the  lati- 
tude of  what  was  subsequently  called  Cape  Mendocino.  It  would 
take  an  evening  alone  properly  to  depict  the  high  hopes,  the 
physical  heroism,  the  horror,  and  the  desolation  of  it  all,  and  in 
the  end  it  turned  away  from,  instead  of  toward,  California.  Once 
more  the  lure  of  promised  fields,  gold  and  precious  stones  had  failed. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  CALIFORNIA  89 

While  Coronado  was  still  absent  on  this  expedition  in  search 
of  Quivira,  Mendoza,  the  Viceroy  of  New  Spain,  sent  the  brave 
and  stout-hearted  Juan  Rodriguez  Cabrillo  on  the  voyage  that  was 
at  last  to  succeed  in  discovering  Alta  or  Upper  California.  Ca- 
brillo started  from  Navidad  June  27,  1542,  with  two  small  ships, 
and  on  September  28th  of  the  same  year  sailed  into  the  beautiful 
Bay  of  San  Diego',  which  he  called  San  Miguel  in  honor  of  Arch- 
angel Michael  whose  day  is  September  29th.  To  Cabrillo  be- 
longs the  illustrious  honor  of  discovering  Alta  California,  he 
"being  the  first  white  man,"  according  to  Hittell,  "so  far  as  we 
have  any  positive  information,  who  laid  his  eyes  or  placed  his  feet 
upon  its  soil."  Cabrillo  spent  six  days  in  this  harbor  and  vicinity 
and  then  sailed  north.  Storms  separated  his  vessels,  but  they  met 
about  the  middle  of  November  in  the  gulf  which  they  named  the 
Bahia  de  los  Pinos,  because  of  the  pines  which  covered  the  moun- 
tains, the  now  celebrated  Drake's  Bay,  where  they  were  unable 
to  land,  but  where  they  cast  anchor  in  order  to  take  possession 
of  the  country.  He  was  finally  driven  south  into  the  Gulf  of  the 
Farallones,  into  the  vicinity  of  the  Golden  Gate,  which  he  failed 
to  discover.  The  early  winter  storms  were  upon  him,  and  as  a 
prudent  navigator  he  finally  sailed  for  the  channel  islands,  in  the 
harbor  of  one  of  which  he  cast  anchor.  Here,  on  January  3,  1543, 
Cabrillo  died,  giving  the  command  to  his  mate  Ferrelo,  with  the 
dying  instruction  to  continue  the  voyage,  and  not  quit  until  the 
entire  coast  had  been  explored.  In  honor  of  his  chief,  Ferrelo 
named  the  island  Juan  Rodriguez.  Here  rest  the  ashes  of  the 
great  navigator  who  first  discovered  what  we  now  know  as  Cali- 
fornia. 

Right  loyally  did  Ferrelo  carry  out  his  dying  chief's  instructions. 
On  January  19th,  he  resumed  the  exploration  northward,  and 
speeding  before  a  fierce  gale  he  reached  latitude  42°  30'  north,  on 
March  1st,  and  sighted  Cape  Blanco,  in  southern  Oregon.  The 
severe  storms  continued  until,  after  frightful  sufferings  and  with 
his  provisions  reduced  to  a  few  sea-biscuits,  he  made  for  home, 
reaching  Navidad  April  14,  1543.  The  whole  coast  of  the  present 
California  had  been  at  last  explored,  though  the  Bay  of  San  Fian- 
cisco  had  not  been  discovered. 

Into  this  drama  of  discovery  and  exploration  then  came  one 


90  THE  PACIFIC  OCEAN  IN  HISTORY 

of  those  startling  contrasts  with  which  the  history  of  California  is 
so  replete.  Spain  and  Portugal  had  quarreled  over  the  ocean 
routes  of  travel,  and  Pope  Alexander  VI  had  settled  the  dispute 
by  drawing,  one  hundred  leagues  west  of  the  Cape  Verde  Islands, 
the  famous  north  and  south  Line  of  Demarcation,  in  his  Bull  of 
May  5,  1493.  By  treaty  between  those  powers  the  line  had  been 
afterwards  shifted  two  hundred  and  seventy  leagues  further  west. 
Spain  was  to  be  entitled  to  all  she  discovered  west  of  the  line, 
Portugal  to  all  she  discovered  east  of  the  line.  The  Line  kept 
Spain  from  sailing  east,  and  Portugal  from  sailing  west.  Spanish 
trade  with  the  Philippines  and  the  Far  East  thus  avoided  the  Cape 
of  Good  Hope  and  the  Indian  Ocean,  and  went  around  South 
America  and  across  the  Pacific.  The  English  claimed,  however, 
that  they  had  the  right  to  trade  with  the  Spanish  colonies  by  virtue 
of  a  treaty  made  with  Spain  in  the  reign  of  Charles  V.  Spain 
denied  the  right,  and  promulgated  the  doctrine  that  there  was 
"no  peace  beyond  the  Line."  England  retaliated  with  piracy, 
carried  on  by  some  of  her  hardiest  and  most  skilled  navigators. 
In  1578  Sir  Francis  Drake,  the  most  celebrated  and  resourceful 
of  her  freebooters,  came  through  the  Straits  of  Magellan,  and 
up  the  coast  of  South  and  North  America,  and  by  the  time  he 
reached  California  waters  his  ship,  the  Golden  Hind,  was  so  loaded 
with  loot  and  treasure,  that  he  realized  the  desperate  chances  of 
capture  he  would  be  taking  if  he  retraced  his  steps.  He  pushed  on 
seeking  a  passage  through  the  fabled  Strait  of  Anian  till  he  reached 
the  latitude  of  southern  Oregon,  whence,  he  claimed,  the  raging 
weather,  bitter  cold,  and  precarious  condition  of  his  vessel  com- 
pelled him  to  turn  south,  as  Ferrelo  had  done,  but  instead  of  dar- 
ing to  go  to  the  channel  islands,  when  he  came  to  the  Farallones 
he  named  them  the  Islands  of  St.  James,  boldly  made  for  the  shore, 
beached  his  ship  in  what  is  now  known  as  Drake's  Bay,  claimed 
the  country  for  England,  and  named  it  Nova  Albion — the  first 
New  England  on  this  continent — June  17, 1579,  forty-one  years  be- 
fore the  Mayflower  reached  Plymouth  Rock,  and  two  hundred  and 
two  years  before  the  Battle  of  Bunker  Hill.  Here  he  careened  and 
cleaned  his  ship,  the  only  one  left  of  the  five  with  which  he  had 
sailed  from  England,  and  though  he  took  a  month  in  doing  it, 
and  was  all  that  time  within  thirty  miles  of  the  Golden  Gate, 


THE  HISTORY  OF  CALIFORNIA  91 

he  did  not  discover  the  Gate.  He  conducted  services  according 
to  the  ritual  of  the  Church  of  England,  set  up  a  large  post,  upon 
which  he  nailed  a  brass  plate,  engraved  with  the  name  of  Queen 
Elizabeth,  the  date,  the  submission  of  the  Indians,  and  his  own 
name,  and  not  having  been  able  to  find  the  Strait  of  Anian,  he 
provisioned  his  craft  with  seal  meat  from  the  Farallones  and  set 
sail  for  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  which  he  made  in  good  season, 
and  finally  reached  Plymouth  Harbor,  in  England,  three  years 
after  he  had  left  it,  and  startled  the  world  with  the  news  of  another 
circumnavigation  of  the  globe,  this  time  by  an  Englishman. 

The  next  attempt  at  Spanish  discovery  and  exploration  in  Cali- 
fornia arose  from  a  different  motive  than  the  lure  of  gold.  The 
Philippine  Islands,  it  will  be  remembered,  had  been  discovered 
by  Magellan  in  1521.  By  1565  Spain  had  established  colonies 
there.  The  trade  with  the  Indies,  which  had  been  the  motive 
of  Columbus'  original  voyage  of  discovery,  had  begun  to  make  a 
sort  of  clearing-house  of  the  Philippines,  and  had  become  the 
most  profitable  trade  of  Spain  in  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth 
centuries.  Vessels  on  their  return  trip  ordinarily  sailed  by  the 
northern  circle  which  brought  them  in  first  sight  of  land  on  the 
California  coast  in  the  neighborhood  of  Cape  Mendocino,  when 
they  turned  south  for  the  harbor  of  Acapulco.  The  run  was  too 
long,  however,  and  a  harbor  of  refuge,  for  shelter  and  repair,  on 
the  stern  and  rock-bound  coast  was  greatly  desired,  preferably 
not  too  far  from  the  first  landfall  on  the  return  home.  The 
supreme  motive  was  to  find  a  harbor,  and  the  supreme  irony  was 
that  for  nearly  two  hundred  years  navigators  passed  and  repassed 
in  front  of  one  of  the  finest  harbors  of  the  world  and  never  dis- 
covered it.  In  fact,  the  Spanish  government  in  1585  gave  direct 
orders  to  Captain  Gali  for  a  survey  of  the  coast  of  California,  south 
of  Cape  Mendocino,  on  his  return  trip,  and  a  beginning  was  made, 
and  the  survey  resumed  ten  years  later  by  Cermeno,  on  his 
return  trip,  and  continued  to  Point  Reyes,  within  thirty  miles 
of  San  Francisco  Bay,  when  he  lost  his  ship,  his  pilot  and  some 
of  the  crew  escaping  in  an  open  boat.  'J 

Of  such  necessity  was  it  deemed  to  find  a  harbor  that  the 
survey  was  now  attempted  from  the  South.  In  1596  Sebastian 
Vizcaino,  commissioned  by  the  viceroy,  the  Count  of  Monterey, 


92  THE  PACIFIC  OCEAN  IN  HISTORY 

sailed  from  Acapulco.  His  first  trip  was  up  the  Gulf  of  California, 
and  was  a  failure.  In  1602  he  again  set  sail  from  Acapulco  with 
three  ships  and  a  launch  with  special  instructions  to  survey  the 
coast  from  Cape  St.  Lucas  to  Cape  Mendocino.  He  had  with 
him  the  pilot  of  the  lost  ship  of  Cermeno.  As  the  log  with  the 
map  was  official  it  was  of  great  importance  to  succeeding  ex- 
plorers, but  to  Californians  the  chief  interest  of  Vizcaino's  second 
trip  consists  in  the  fact  that  the  names  which  he  gave  to  the 
islands,  straits,  capes,  and  other  geographical  prominences  have, 
almost  without  exception,  all  come  down  to  this  day.  On  Novem- 
ber 10  he  sailed  into  San  Diego  harbor,  and  changed  its  name 
from  San  Miguel,  the  name  given  by  Cabrillo,  and  named  it  for 
St.  James  of  Alcala  (Spanish,  San  Diego),  whose  anniversary  he 
celebrated  on  the  shore  November  14th.  On  the  26th  he  entered 
and  named  the  harbor  of  San  Pedro  for  St.  Peter,  Bishop  of 
Alexandria,  whose  anniversary  fell  upon  that  date.  He  named 
the  islands  of  Santa  Catalina  and  San  Clemente.  He  named 
Santa  Barbara  channel,  through  which  he  sailed  on  the  Saint's 
day,  December  4th,  and  also,  for  like  reason,  named  Isla  de  Santa 
Barbara  and  Isla  San  Nicolas,  in  the  latter  instance  supplanting  the 
name  of  Juan  Rodriguez  given  it  by  Ferrelo  in  honor  of  Cabrillo. 
On  the  14th  he  rounded  and  named  Punta  de  la  Concepcion.  Rio 
del  Carmelo  he  named  after  the  three  Carmelite  friars  on  his 
ship.  He  named  the  Point  of  Pines  and  on  December  28,  1602, 
sailed  into  Monterey  Bay,  which  he  named  after  the  Count  of 
Monterey,  who  had  sent  out  the  expedition.  He  landed,  had  the 
mass  celebrated  and  a  Te  Deum  chanted  beneath  the  historic 
oak  at  the  sea-shore,  and  unfurled  the  standard  of  Spain.  Though 
this  bay  is  but  an  open  roadstead,  he  treated  it  as  the  long-sought 
harbor  of  refuge,  and  so  reported  to  his  King.  Sending  back 
the  sick  and  the  helpless  on  one  of  his  ships,  he  pushed  north 
with  the  remainder,  and  as  the  pilot  of  Cermeno's  wrecked  ship 
claimed  that  chests  of  silk  had  been  left  on  the  shore,  he  made 
the  harbor  of  Drake's  Bay,  under  the  lee  of  the  cape,  which 
he  named  Punta  de  los  Reyes,  in  honor  of  the  Three  Kings, 
whose  feast  day  had  happened  the  day  of  his  arrival.  No  trace 
of  any  ship  or  cargo  was  found,  and  no  Bay  of  San  Francisco  was 
discovered,  though  but  thirty  miles  away.  He  then  started  north- 


THE  HISTORY  OF  CALIFORNIA  93 

ward  and  was  driven  by  a  gale  beyond  Cape  Mendocino,  and  when 
the  fog  lifted  on  January  20th,  he  was  in  sight  of  Cape  Blanco, 
off  the  coast  of  southern  Oregon,  when,  as  it  was  the  limit  of  his 
instructions,  with  the  statement  in  his  report  that  the  trend  of 
the  coast  was  onward  "towards  Japan  and  great  China,  which 
are  but  a  short  run  away,"  he  returned  to  Acapulco,  where  he 
arrived  toward  the  end  of  the  following  March.  The  stout  old 
Captain  and  his  men  had  been  much  impressed  by  the  abundance 
and  variety  of  wild  game  in  and  about  Monterey,  and  in  his  report 
he  begged  an  opportunity  to  return  with  sufficient  equipment  to 
make  a  permanent  settlement,  but  by  the  time  the  sovereign's 
assent  had  been  obtained  he  had  become  too  old  and  infirm 
to  make  the  attempt.  The  discovery  of  the  harbor  and  the 
permanent  settlement  of  country  were  on  the  knees  of  the 
gods,  and  not  for  one  hundred  and  sixty  years  afterwards  was 
it  destined  to  be  accomplished,  and  then  from  the  land  and  not 
from  the  sea. 

When  we  remember  Cabrillo,  Ferrelo,  Drake,  Gali,  Cermeiio, 
Vizcaino,  and  all  the  others  that  passed  and  repassed  the  gate 
without  seeing  it,  may  we  not  ask  ourselves,  Was  the  curtain  of 
fog  always  lowered  as  a  screen  before  a  vessel  passed?  Or  was 
the  Gate  always  just  below  the  horizon  ?  Marvellous  it  is  that  so 
many  of  these  landed  under  the  lee  of  Point  Reyes  and  discovered 
nothing.  More  marvellous  still  that  no  member  of  Drake's  crew, 
in  all  the  thirty  days'  stay,  ever  climbed  an  eminence  that  com- 
manded a  view.  Most  marvellous  of  all  that  the  pilot  and  crew  of 
Cermeno,  escaping  in  an  open  boat,  which  would  naturally  have 
kept  comparatively  close  to  the  shore,  saw  nothing.  A  wonderful 
part  has  that  mantle  of  fog  played  in  the  history  of  San  Francisco 
Bay!  No  wonder  we  take  down  from  the  shelf  the  old  Indian 
legend,  and  read  it  again : 

"There  was  once  a  time  when  the  entire  face  of  the  country 
was  covered  with  water,  except  two  islands,  one  of  which  was 
Mt.  Diablo,  the  other  Tamalpais.  As  the  Indians  increased 
the  waters  decreased,  until  where  the  lake  had  been  became  dry 
land.  At  that  time  what  is  now  known  as  the  Golden  Gate  was 
an  entire  chain  of  mountains,  so  that  you  could  go  from  one  side 
to  the  other  dry-shod.  There  were  at  this  time  two  outlets  for 


94  THE  PACIFIC  OCEAN  IN  HISTORY 

the  waters :  one  was  Russian  River,  the  other  San  Juan.  Some 
time  afterwards  a  great  earthquake  severed  the  chain  of  moun- 
tains, and  formed  what  is  now  known  as  the  Golden  Gate.  Then 
the  waters  of  the  Great  Ocean  and  the  Bay  were  permitted  to 
mingle.  The  rocky  wall  being  rent  asunder,  it  was  not  long 
before  the  'pale  faces*  found  their  way  in,  and,  as  the  waters 
decreased  at  the  coming  of  the  Indians,  so  have  the  Indians  de- 
creased at  the  approach  of  the  white  man,  until  the  whoop  is 
heard  no  more,  and  the  council  fire  is  no  more  lighted ;  for  the 
Indians,  like  shadows,  have  passed  silently  away  from  the  land." 
And  then  for  over  one  hundred  and  sixty  years,  while  the 
commerce  with  the  Philippines  grew  apace,  and  while  the  activ- 
ities of  Spain  found  occupation  at  home,  no  practical  measures 
were  taken  for  the  exploration,  colonization,  or  civilization  of 
California  by  her.  In  the  meantime,  the  far  flung  colonization 
schemes  of  England  had  occupied  the  Atlantic  Coast,  and  the 
rising  power  of  France  had  reached  the  Mississippi,  on  the  east, 
and  Bering  had  carried  the  Russian  eagles  across  the  strait,  on 
the  north.  The  more  immediate  danger  appeared  on  the  north- 
ern horizon,  and  Spain  at  length  aroused  herself  to  understand 
that  if  the  Californias  were  to  be  retained,  they  must  be  occupied, 
settled,  and  civilized.  As  a  result  of  the  wisdom  of  her  councillors 
came  the  great  expedition  of  Joseph  Galvez  to  New  Spain  —  Galvez 
the  guiding  hand  back  of  the  scheme  of  mission  and  presidio  and 
pueblo  that  has  shed  over  the  history  of  California  a  perfect  halo 
of  Spanish  glory,  —  Galvez,  one  name  California  must  never 
forget,  because  without  him,  or  without  some  one  in  his  place,  or 
without  the  continental  advices  that  created  his  mission,  there 
might  have  been  no  Anza,  no  Portola,  no  Junipero  Serra.  Inci- 
dent to  the  plan  of  occupation,  settlement,  and  civilization,  was 
soon  again  developed  the  supreme  practical  necessity  of  finding  a 
harbor.  The  military  and  civil  features  of  the  expedition  were 
entrusted  to  Gaspar  de  Portola,  and  the  religious  feature  to 
Junipero  Serra,  Father-President  of  the  Franciscan  missions.  The 
San  Antonio  and  the  San  Carlos  constituted  the  naval  feature 
along  the  coast.  July  1,  1769,  marked  the  entrance  of  the  expe- 
dition into  San  Diego.  On  July  16,  1769,  Father  Junipero  Serra 
founded  the  Mission  of  San  Diego  de  Alcala.  I  have  not  the 


THE  HISTORY  OF  CALIFORNIA  95 

time  to  describe  the  march  of  Portola  and  its  heart-breaking  inci- 
dents, nor  the  accidental  discovery  of  San  Francisco  Bay  from  the 
heights  above  Montara  by  some  of  the  force  under  his  command, 
about  November  2,  1769,  nor  the  naming  of  the  Bay  after  St. 
Francis  of  Assisi,  the  patron  of  the  Franciscan  order,  under  the 
promise  that  had  been  made  by  Portola  to  Father  Junipero  Serra, 
nor  the  first  entrance  by  any  vessel  into  San  Francisco  Bay, 
when  six  years  later,  the  packet-boat  San  Carlos,  under  the  com- 
mand of  Lieutenant  Juan  Manuel  de  Ayala,  came  through  the 
Gate,  on  August  5,  1775,  and  cast  anchor  at  half  past  ten  in  the 
evening,  off  what  is  now  Sausalito.  Neither  have  I  the  time  to 
sketch  the  wonderful  march  of  Juan  Bautista  de  Anza  from 
Sonora  to  the  Bay  that  had  been  discovered,  when  he  founded  the 
Presidio  of  San  Francisco  on  the  Feast  of  the  Stigmata  of  St. 
Francis  of  Assisi,  September  17,  1776,  nor  the  opening  of 
Mission  Dolores,  postponed  until  the  Feast  of  St.  Francis,  October 
4,  of  the  same  year.  That  march  was  the  Anabasis  of  California. 
Nothing  in  Xenophon's  recital  of  the  March  of  the  Ten  Thousand 
to  the  sea  equals  it.  And  it  gives  me  a  peculiar  pleasure  to  give 
public  recognition  of  the  great  service  performed  by  Zoeth  S. 
Eldredge,  sitting  upon  the  platform  this  evening,  for  the  splendid 
work  in  his  History  of  California,  in  five  volumes,  which  has 
just  come  off  the  press,  for  his  service  in  giving  this  brave  and 
patient  military  leader  his  proper  place  in  the  perspective  of  the 
Spanish  history  of  California. 

Four  presidios  were  established,  at  Monterey,  San  Francisco, 
San  Diego,  and  Santa  Barbara,  respectively.  Three  pueblos 
were  founded,  or  attempted  to  be  founded,  at  San  Jose  de  Guada- 
lupe,  Nuestra  Sefiora  la  Reina  de  Los  Angeles  (Our  Lady  the 
Queen  of  the  Angels),  and  Branciforte,  the  present  Santa  Cruz. 
Twenty-one  missions  were  founded,  about  a  day's  journey  apart, 
stretching  from  San  Diego  de  Alcala  on  the  south  to  San  Fran- 
cisco de  Solano  on  the  north.  What  will  ever  stand  out  on  the 
horizon  of  this  period  of  California's  history  is  not  the  story  of  its 
presidios  with  their  incidents  of  the  life  of  the  military  barracks 
and  the  occasional  skirmish  between  wilful  soldier  and  watchful 
padre,  nor  the  story  of  its  pueblos  with  their  combination  between 
a  kind  of  homestead  law  and  a  sort  of  a  city  charter,  but  the 


96  THE  PACIFIC  OCEAN  IN  HISTORY 

attempt  to  civilize,  to  uplift  humanity  —  the  battle  under  the 
standard  of  the  cross  to  save  the  souls  of  men  —  by  the  missions 
of  the  Franciscan  padres. 

"The  official  purpose  here,  as  in  older  mission  undertakings," 
says  Dr.  Josiah  Royce,  "was  a  union  of  physical  and  spiritual 
conquest,  —  soldiers  under  a  military  governor  cooperating  to 
this  end  with  missionaries  and  mission  establishments.  The 
natives  were  to  be  overcome  by  arms  in  so  far  as  they  might  resist 
the  conquerors,  were  to  be  attracted  to  the  missions  by  peace- 
able measure  in  so  far  as  might  prove  possible,  were  to  be  instructed 
in  the  faith,  and  were  to  be  kept  for  the  present  under  the  paternal 
rule  of  the  clergy,  until  such  time  as  they  might  be  ready  for  a 
free  life  as  Christian  subjects.  Meanwhile,  Spanish  colonists  were 
to  be  brought  to  the  new  land  as  circumstances  might  determine, 
and  to  these,  allotments  of  land  were  to  be  made.  No  grants  of 
lands  in  a  legal  sense  were  made  or  promised  to  the  mission  estab- 
lishments whose  position  was  to  be  merely  that  of  spiritual  insti- 
tutions, intrusted  with  the  education  of  neophytes,  and  with  the 
care  of  the  property  that  should  be  given  or  hereafter  produced 
for  the  purpose.  On  the  other  hand,  if  the  government  tended 
to  regard  the  missions  as  purely  subsidiary  to  its  purpose,  the 
outgoing  missionaries  to  this  strange  land  were  so  much  the  more 
certain  to  be  quite  uncorrupted  by  worldly  ambitions,  by  a  hope 
of  acquiring  wealth,  or  by  any  intention  to  found  a  powerful  eccle- 
siastical government  in  the  new  colony.  They  went  to  save 
souls,  and  their  motive  was  as  single  as  it  was  worthy  of  rever- 
ence. In  the  sequel,  the  more  successful  missions  of  Upper  Cali- 
fornia became,  for  a  time,  very  wealthy;  but  this  was  only  by 
virtue  of  the  gifts  of  nature  and  of  the  devoted  labors  of  the 
padres." 

Speaking  of  these  upon  another  occasion,  I  said  :  "  Such  a  scheme 
of  human  effort  is  so  unique  and  so  in  contrast  to  much  that 
obtains  to-day  that  it  seems  like  a  narrative  from  another  world. 
Fortunately,  the  annals  of  these  missions,  which  ultimately  ex- 
tended from  San  Diego  to  beyond  Sonoma,  stepping-stones  of 
civilization  on  this  coast,  are  complete,  and  their  simple  disin- 
terestedness and  directness  sound  like  a  tale  from  Arcady.  They 
were  signally  successful  because  those  who  conducted  them  were 


THE  HISTORY  OF  CALIFORNIA  97 

true  to  the  trusteeship  of  their  lives.  They  cannot  be  held  re- 
sponsible if  they  were  unable  in  a  single  generation  to  eradicate 
in  the  Indian  the  ingrained  heredity  of  shiftlessness  of  all  the 
generations  that  had  gone  before.  It  is  a  source  of  high  satis- 
faction that  there  was  on  the  part  of  the  padres  no  record  of 
overreaching  the  simple  natives,  no  failure  to  respect  what  rights 
they  claimed,  no  carnage  and  bloodshed,  that  have  so  often  at- 
tended expeditions  set  nominally  for  civilization,  but  really  for 
conquest.  Here  at  least  was  one  record  of  missionary  endeavor 
that  came  to  full  fruition  and  flower,  and  knew  no  fear  or  despair, 
until  it  attracted  the  attention  of  the  ruthless  rapacity  and  greed 
of  the  Mexican  governmental  authority  crouching  behind  the 
project  of  secularization.  The  enforced  withdrawal  of  the  pater- 
nal hand  before  the  Indian  had  learned  to  stand  and  walk  alone, 
coupled  in  some  sections  with  the  dread  scourge  of  pestilential 
epidemic,  wrought  dispersion,  decimation,  and  destruction.  If, 
however,  the  teeming  acres  are  now  otherwise  tilled,  and  if  the 
herds  of  cattle  have  passed  away  and  the  communal  life  is  gone 
forever,  the  record  of  what  was  accomplished  in  those  pastoral 
days  has  linked  the  name  of  California  with  a  new  and  imperish- 
able architecture,  and  has  immortalized  the  name  of  Junipero 
Serra.  The  pathetic  ruin  at  Carmel  is  a  shattered  monument 
above  a  grave  that  will  become  a  world's  shrine  of  pilgrimage  in 
honor  of  one  of  humanity's  heroes.  The  patient  soul  that  here 
laid  down  its  burden  will  not  be  forgotten.  The  memory  of  the 
brave  heart  that  was  here  consumed  with  love  for  mankind  will 
live  through  the  ages.  And,  in  a  sense,  the  work  of  these  missions 
is  not  dead  —  their  very  ruins  still  preach  the  lesson  of  service 
and  of  sacrifice.  As  the  fishermen  off  the  coast  of  Brittany  tell 
the  legend  that  at  the  evening  hour,  as  their  boats  pass  over  the 
vanished  Atlantis,  they  can  still  hear  the  sounds  of  its  activity 
at  the  bottom  of  the  sea,  so  every  Californian  as  he  turns  the 
pages  of  the  early  history  of  his  State  feels  at  times  that  he  can 
hear  the  echo  of  the  Angelus  bells  of  the  missions,  and  amid  the 
din  of  the  money-madness  of  these  later  days  can  find  a  response 
in  'the  better  angels  of  his  nature."3 

The  record  of  this  spiritual  battle  is  part  of  our  tradition. 
It  is  inextricably  interwoven  with  the  history  of  our  common- 


98  THE  PACIFIC  OCEAN  IN  HISTORY 

wealth.  It  has  been  seen  that  it  was  linked  up  with  the  plans  of 
Galvez,  and  not  with  the  plans  of  Cortes.  The  latter's  prime 
object  was  the  discovery  of  gold,  and  it  is  another  of  the  ironies 
of  California's  history  that  those  who  had  hunted  for  the  gold 
did  not  discover  it,  and  that  when  it  was  finally  discovered,  just 
as  in  the  case  of  the  harbor,  it  was  found  by  accident.  And  it  is  a 
probability  not  always  apprehended  that  had  gold  been  discovered 
in  the  days  of  Spain's  ascendency,  the  country  would  have  been 
colonized  by  her  as  effectively  as  Peru  and  Mexico,  and  that  while 
it  would  have  been  ultimately  lost  to  her  politically,  just  as  they 
were,  its  destinies  might  never  have  been  in  the  hands  of  Ameri- 
cans. Not  simply  the  discovery  of  gold,  then,  but  the  date  of  its 
discovery,  was  what  settled  the  destiny  of  California.  Unauthen- 
ticated  rumors  of  the  existence  of  gold  had  long  been  bruited 
about.  The  first  specific  intimation  was  the  unimportant  dis- 
covery near  San  Fernando  in  1842.  Thomas  O.  Larkin,  the 
consul  of  the  United  States  government,  had  for  some  tune 
been  secretly  sending  to  Washington  from  Monterey  his  impres- 
sions of  the  great  wealth  of  the  country  and  his  warnings  against 
possible  observance  by  other  powers.  Knowing  intimately  the 
desires  of  the  government,  he  lost  no  opportunity  to  whet  its 
appetite.  The  Mexican  War  was  impending.  On  the  4th  of 
May,  1846,  in  an  official  letter  to  James  Buchanan,  then  Secretary 
of  State,  Larkin  boldly  wrote  as  follows :  "  There  is  no  doubt  but 
that  gold,  quicksilver,  lead,  sulphur,  and  coal  mines  are  to  be 
found  all  over  California,  and  it  is  equally  doubtful  whether, 
under  their  present  owners,  they  will  be  worked."  Suggestion 
could  hardly  be  broader.  Sixty-four  days  later,  by  one  of  these 
queer  coincidences  of  history,  on  the  7th  of  July,  1846,  Commo- 
dore Sloat  raised  the  American  flag  at  Monterey,  and  the  oppor- 
tunity for  the  Spanish,  or  even  for  the  Mexicans,  to  discover 
gold  in  California,  had  passed  forever. 

James  W.  Marshall  made  the  discovery  of  gold  in  the  race 
of  a  small  mill  at  Coloma  in  the  latter  part  of  January,  1848. 
Thereupon  took  place  an  incident  of  history  which  demon- 
strated that  Jason  and  his  companions  were  not  the  only  Argo- 
nauts who  ever  made  a  voyage  to  unknown  shores  in  search  of  a 
golden  fleece.  The  first  news  of  the  discovery  almost  depopu- 


THE  HISTORY  OF  CALIFORNIA  99 

lated  the  towns  and  ranches  of  California  and  even  affected  the 
discipline  of  the  small  army  of  occupation.  The  first  winter 
brought  thousands  of  Oregonians,  Mexicans,  and  Chilenos.  The 
extraordinary  reports  that  reached  the  East  were  at  first  dis- 
believed, but  when  the  private  letters  of  army  officers  and  men 
in  authority  were  published,  an  indescribable  gold  fever  took 
possession  of  the  nation  east  of  the  Alleghanies.  All  the  energetic 
and  daring,  all  the  physically  sound  of  all  ages,  seemed  bent  on 
reaching  the  new  El  Dorado.  "The  old  Gothic  instinct  of  inva- 
sion seemed  to  survive  and  thrill  in  the  fiber  of  our  people,"  and 
the  camps  and  gulches  and  mines  of  California  witnessed  a  social 
and  political  phenomenon  unique  in  the  history  of  the  world  — 
the  spirit  and  romance  of  which  have  been  immortalized  in  the 
pages  of  Bret  Harte.  Before  1850  the  population  of  California 
had  risen  from  51,000,  as  it  was  in  1847,  to  100,000,  and  the 
average  weekly  increase  for  six  weeks  thereafter  was  50,000. 
The  novelty  of  this  situation  produced  in  many  minds  the  most 
marvellous  development.  "Every  glance  westward  was  met  by 
a  new  ray  of  intelligence;  every  drawn  breath  of  western  air 
brought  inspiration;  every  step  taken  was  over  an  unknown 
field;  every  experiment,  every  thought,  every  aspiration  and 
act  were  original  and  individual." 

No  more  interesting  phase  of  history  can  be  presented  than 
that  which  arose  in  California  immediately  after  Marshall's 
discovery,  with  reference  to  titles  upon  the  public  domain.  The 
United  States  was  still  at  war  with  Mexico,  its  sovereignty  over 
the  soil  of  California  not  being  recognized  by  the  latter.  The 
treaty  of  Guadalupe  Hidalgo  was  not  signed  until  February  2, 
and  the  ratified  copies  thereof  not  exchanged  at  Queretaro  till 
May  30,  1848.  On  the  12th  of  February,  1848,  ten  days  after 
the  signing  of  the  treaty  of  peace  and  about  three  weeks  after  the 
discovery  of  gold  at  Coloma,  Colonel  Mason  did  the  pioneers  a 
signal  service  by  issuing,  as  governor,  the  proclamation  concern- 
ing the  mines,  which  at  the  time  was  taken  as  a  finality  and  cer- 
tainty as  to  the  status  of  mining  titles  in  their  international 
aspect.  "From  and  after  this  date,"  the  proclamation  reads, 
"the  Mexican  laws  and  customs  now  prevailing  in  California 
relative  to  the  denouncement  of  mines  are  hereby  abolished." 


100  THE  PACIFIC  OCEAN  IN  HISTORY 

Although  as  the  law  was  fourteen  years  afterwards  expounded 
by  the  United  States  Supreme  Court,  the  act  was  unnecessary  as 
a  precautionary  measure,1  still  the  practical  result  of  the  timeli- 
ness of  the  proclamation  was  to  prevent  attempts  to  found  pri- 
vate titles  to  the  new  discovery  of  gold  on  any  customs  or  laws 
of  Mexico. 

Meantime,  California  was  governed  by  military  authority. 
Except  an  act  to  provide  for  the  deliveries  and  taking  of  mails 
at  certain  points  on  the  coast,  and  a  resolution  authorizing  the 
furnishing  of  arms  and  ammunition  to  certain  immigrants,  no 
federal  act  was  passed  with  reference  to  California  in  any  rela- 
tion ;  in  no  act  of  Congress  was  California  even  mentioned  after 
its  annexation,  until  the  act  of  March  3,  1849,  extending  the 
revenue  laws  of  the  United  States  "  over  the  territory  and  waters 
of  Upper  California,  and  to  create  certain  collection  districts 
therein."  This  act  of  March  3,  1849,  did  not  even  create 
a  local  tribunal  for  its  enforcement,  providing  instead  that  the 
District  Court  of  Louisiana  and  the*  Supreme  Court  of  Oregon 
should  be  courts  of  original  jurisdiction  to  take  cognizance  of  all 
violations  of  its  provisions.  Not  even  the  act  of  the  9th  of  Sep- 
tember, 1850,  admitting  California  into  the  Union,  extended  the 
general  laws  of  the  United  States  over  the  State  by  express  provi- 
sion. Not  until  the  act  of  September  26,  1850,  establishing  a 
District  Court  in  the  State,  was  it  enacted  by  Congress  "that  all 
the  laws  of  the  United  States  which  are  not  locally  inapplicable 
shall  have  the  same  force  and  effect  within  the  said  State  of  Cali- 
fornia as  elsewhere  in  the  United  States." 

Though  no  general  federal  laws  were  extended  by  Congress 
over  the  later  acquisitions  from  Mexico  for  more  than  two  years 
after  the  end  of  the  war,  the  paramount  title  to  the  public  lands 
had  vested  in  the  federal  government  by  virtue  of  the  provisions 
of  the  treaty  of  peace;  the  public  land  itself  had  become  part 
of  the  public  domain  of  the  United  States.  The  army  of  occu- 
pation, however,  offered  no  opposition  to  the  invading  army  of 
prospectors.  The  miners  were,  in  1849,  twenty  years  ahead  of 
the  railroad  and  the  electric  telegraph.  The  telephone  had  not 
yet  been  invented.  In  the  parlance  of  the  times,  the  prospectors 

i  United  States  vs.  Castellero,  2  Black  (67  U.S.),  17-371. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  CALIFORNIA  101 

"had  the  drop"  on  the  army.  In  Colonel  Mason's  unique  report 
of  the  situation  that  confronted  him,  discretion  waited  upon 
valor.  "The  entire  gold  district,"  he  wrote  to  the  government 
at  Washington,  "with  few  exceptions  of  grants  made  some  years 
ago  by  the  Mexican  authorities,  is  on  land  belonging  to  the  United 
States.  It  was  a  matter  of  serious  reflection  with  me  how  I 
could  secure  to  the  government  certain  rents  or  fees  for  the  privi- 
lege of  procuring  this  gold ;  but  upon  considering  the  large  extent 
of  the  country,  the  character  of  the  people  engaged,  and  the  small 
scattered  force  at  my  command,  I  am  resolved  not  to  interfere, 
but  permit  all  to  work  freely."  It  is  not  recorded  whether  the 
resolute  colonel  was  conscious  of  the  humor  of  his  resolution. 
This  early  suggestion  of  conservation  was,  under  the  circum- 
stances, manifestly  academic. 

The  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  in  commenting  on  the 
singular  situation  in  which  Colonel  Mason  found  himself,  clearly 
and  forcefully  states  his  predicament.  "His  position,"  says  that 
Court,  "was  unlike  anything  that  had  preceded  it  in  the  history  of 
our  country.  ...  It  was  not  without  its  difficulties,  both  as 
regards  the  principle  upon  which  he  should  act  and  the  actual 
state  of  affairs  in  California.  He  knew  that  the  Mexican  inhab- 
itants of  it  had  been  remitted  by  the  treaty  of  peace  to  those 
municipal  laws  and  usages  which  prevailed  among  them  before  the 
territory  had  been  ceded  to  the  United  States,  but  that  a  state  of 
things  and  population  had  grown  up  during  the  war,  and  after 
the  treaty  of  peace,  which  made  some  other  authority  necessary 
to  maintain  the  rights  of  the  ceded  inhabitants  and  of  immigrants 
from  misrule  and  violence.  He  may  not  have  comprehended 
fully  the  principle  applicable  to  what  he  might  rightly  do  in  such 
a  case,  but  he  felt  rightly,  and  acted  accordingly.  He  determined, 
in  the  absence  of  all  instruction,  to  maintain  the  existing  govern- 
ment. The  territory  had  been  ceded  as  a  conquest,  and  was 
to  be  preserved  and  governed  as  such  until  the  sovereignty  to 
which  it  had  passed  had  legislated  for  it.  That  sovereignty  was 
the  United  States,  under  the  Constitution,  by  which  power  had 
been  given  to  Congress  to  dispose  of  and  make  all  needful  rules 
and  regulations  respecting  the  territory  or  other  property  belong- 
ing to  the  United  States,  with  the  power  also  to  admit  new  States 


102  THE  PACIFIC  OCEAN  IN  HISTORY 

into  this  Union,  with  only  such  limitations  as  are  expressed  in  the 
section  in  which  this  power  is  given.  The  government,  of  which 
Colonel  Mason  was  the  executive,  had  its  origin  in  the  lawful 
exercise  of  a  belligerent  right  over  a  conquered  territory.  It  had 
been  instituted  during  the  war  by  the  command  of  the  President 
of  the  United  States.  It  was  the  government  when  the  territory 
was  ceded  as  a  conquest,  and  it  did  not  cease,  as  a  matter  of 
course,  or  as  a  necessary  consequence  of  the  restoration  of  peace. 
The  President  might  have  dissolved  it  by  withdrawing  the  army 
and  navy  officers  who  administered  it,  but  he  did  not  do  so. 
Congress  could  have  put  an  end  to  it,  but  that  was  not  done. 
The  right  inference  from  the  inaction  of  both  is,  that  it  was  meant 
to  be  continued  until  it  had  been  legislatively  changed.  No 
presumption  of  a  contrary  intention  can  be  made.  Whatever 
may  have  been  the  causes  of  delay,  it  must  be  presumed  that  the 
delay  was  consistent  with  the  true  policy  of  the  government."  l 

This  guess,  being  the  last  guess,  must  now  be  taken  as  author- 
itative. 

The  prospectors  and  miners  were,  then,  in  the  start,  simply 
trespassers  upon  the  public  lands  as  against  the  government  of 
the  United  States,  with  no  laws  to  guide,  restrain,  or  protect  them, 
and  with  nothing  to  fear  from  the  military  authorities.  They 
were  equal  to  the  occasion.  The  instinct  of  organization  was  a 
part  of  their  heredity.  Professor  Macy,  in  a  treatise  issued  by 
Johns  Hopkins  University,  once  wrote :  "  It  has  been  said  that  if 
three  Americans  meet  to  talk  over  an  item  of  business  the  first 
thing  they  do  is  to  organize." 

"  Finding  themselves  far  from  the  legal  traditions  and  restraints 
of  the  settled  East,"  says  the  report  of  the  Public  Land  Com- 
mission of  1880,  "in  a  pathless  wilderness,  under  the  feverish 
excitement  of  an  industry  as  swift  and  full  of  chance  as  the  throw- 
ing of  dice,  the  adventurers  of  1849  spontaneously  instituted 
neighborhood  or  district  codes  of  regulation,  which  were  simply 
meant  to  define  and  protect  a  brief  possessory  ownership.  The 
ravines  and  river  bars  which  held  the  placer  gold  were  valueless 
for  settlement  or  home  making,  but  were  splendid  stakes  to  hold 
for  a  few  short  seasons  and  gamble  with  nature  for  wealth  or  ruin. 

»  Cross  vs.  Harrison,  16  Howard  (57  U.S.),  164,  192. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  CALIFORNIA  103 

"In  the  absence  of  state  and  federal  laws  competent  to  meet 
the  novel  industry,  and  with  the  inbred  respect  for  equitable  ad- 
justments of  rights  between  man  and  man,  the  miners  sought  only 
to  secure  equitable  rights  and  protection  from  robbery  by  a  simple 
agreement  as  to  the  maximum  size  of  a  surface  claim,  trusting, 
with  a  well-founded  confidence,  that  no  machinery  was  necessary 
to  enforce  their  regulations  other  than  the  swift,  rough  blows  of 
public  opinion.  The  gold  seekers  were  not  long  in  realizing  that 
the  source  of  the  dust  which  had  worked  its  way  into  the  sands 
and  bars,  and  distributed  its  precious  particles  over  the  bed  rocks 
of  rivers,  was  derived  from  solid  quartz  veins,  which  were  thin 
sheets  of  mineral  material  inclosed  in  the  foundation  rocks  of  the 
country.  Still  in  advance  of  any  enactments  by  Legislature  or 
Congiess,  the  common  sense  of  the  miners,  which  had  proved 
strong  enough  to  govern  with  wisdom  the  ownership  of  placer 
mines,  rose  to  meet  the  question  of  lode  claims  and  sheet-like  veins 
of  quartz,  and  provided  that  a  claim  should  consist  of  a  certain 
horizontal  block  of  the  vein,  however  it  might  run,  but  extending 
indefinitely  downward,  with  a  strip  of  surface  on,  or  embracing 
the  vein's  outcrop,  for  the  placing  of  necessary  machinery  and 
buildings.  Under  this  theory  the  lode  was  the  property,  and  the 
surface  became  a  mere  easement. 

"This  early  California  theory  of  a  mining  claim,  consisting  of 
a  certain  number  of  running  feet  of  vein,  with  a  strip  of  land 
covering  the  surface  length  of  the  claim,  is  the  obvious  foundation 
for  the  federal  legislation  and  present  system  of  public  disposition 
and  private  ownership  of  the  mineral  lands  west  of  the  Missouri 
River.  Contrasted  with  this  is  the  mode  of  disposition  of  mineral 
bearing  lands  east  of  the  Missouri  River,  where  the  common 
law  has  been  the  rule,  and  where  the  surface  tract  has  always 
carried  with  it  all  minerals  vertically  below  it. 

"  The  great  coal,  copper,  lead,  and  zinc  wealth  east  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains  has  all  passed  with  the  surface  titles,  and  there  can  be 
little  doubt  if  California  had  been  contiguous  to  the  eastern 
metallic  regions,  and  its  mineral  development  progressed  naturally 
with  the  advantage  of  home  making  settlements,  the  power  of 
common  law  precedent  would  have  governed  its  whole  mining 
history.  But  California  was  one  of  those  extraordinary  historic 


104  THE  PACIFIC  OCEAN  IN  HISTORY 

exceptions  that  defy  precedent  and  create  original  modes  of  life 
and  law.  And  since  the  developers  of  the  great  precious  metal 
mining  of  the  far  west  have  for  the  most  part  swarmed  out  of  the 
California  hive,  California  ideas  have  not  only  been  everywhere 
dominant  over  the  field  of  the  industry,  but  have  stemmed  the 
tide  of  federal  land  policy,  and  given  us  a  statute  book  with 
English  common  law  in  force  over  half  the  land  and  California 
common  law  ruling  in  the  other." 

"  The  discovery  of  gold  in  California,"  says  Justice  Field,  speak- 
ing from  the  Supreme  Bench  of  the  United  States,  "  was  followed, 
as  is  well  known,  by  an  immense  immigration  into  the  State,  which 
increased  its  population  within  three  or  four  years  from  a  few 
thousand  to  several  hundred  thousand.  The  lands  in  which  the 
precious  metals  were  found  belonged  to  the  United  States,  and 
were  unsurveyed  and  not  open  by  law  to  occupation  and  settle- 
ment. Little  was  known  of  them  further  than  that  they  were 
situated  in  the  Sierra  Nevada  mountains.  Into  these  mountains 
the  emigrants  in  vast  numbers  penetrated,  occupying  the  ravines, 
gulches,  and  canyons  and  probing  the  earth  in  all  directions  for 
the  precious  metals.  Wherever  they  went  they  carried  with  them 
the  love  of  order  and  system  of  fab*  dealing  which  are  the  promi- 
nent characteristics  of  our  people.  In  every  district  which  they 
occupied  they  framed  certain  rules  for  then*  government,  by  which 
the  extent  of  ground  they  could  severally  hold  for  mining  was 
designated,  their  possessory  right  to  such  ground  secured  and 
enforced,  and  contests  between  them  either  avoided  or  determined. 
These  rules  bore  a  marked  similarity,  varying  in  the  several  dis- 
tricts only  according  to  the  extent  and  character  of  the  mines; 
distinct  provision  being  made  for  different  kinds  of  mining,  such 
as  placer  mining,  quartz  mining,  and  mining  in  drifts  or  tunnels. 
They  all  recognized  discovery,  followed  by  appropriation,  as  the 
foundation  of  the  possessor's  title,  and  development  by  working 
as  the  condition  of  its  retention.  And  they  were  so  framed  as  to 
secure  to  all  comers  within  practicable  limits  absolute  equality 
of  right  and  privilege  in  working  the  mines.  Nothing  but  such 
equality  would  have  been  tolerated  by  the  miners,  who  were 
emphatically  the  law-makers,  as  respects  mining  upon  the  public 
lands  in  the  State.  The  first  appropriator  was  everywhere  held 


THE  HISTORY  OF  CALIFORNIA  105 

to  have,  within  certain  well-defined  limits,  a  better  right  than 
others  to  the  claims  taken  up;  and  in  all  controversies,  except 
as  against  the  government,  he  was  regarded  as  the  original  owner, 
from  whom  title  was  to  be  traced.  .  .  .  These  regulations  and 
customs  were  appealed  to  in  controversies  in  the  State  courts, 
and  received  their  sanction ;  and  properties  to  the  value  of  many 
millions  rested  upon  them.  For  eighteen  years,  from  1848  to 
1866,  the  regulations  and  customs  of  miners,  as  enforced  and 
moulded  by  the  courts  and  sanctioned  by  the  legislation  of  the 
State,  constituted  the  law  governing  property  in  mines  and  the 
water  on  the  public  mineral  lands."  1 

I  have  spoken  of  the  era  of  the  Spanish  navigators,  of  the 
peaceful  civilization  of  the  missions,  of  the  strenuous  life  issuing 
in  the  adoption  of  the  mining  code.  Let  me  give  you  now  a 
most  characteristic  example  of  California's  democratic  resource- 
fulness; her  method  of  getting  into  the  Union.  But  two  other 
states  at  the  present  time  —  Nevada  and  Wyoming  —  celebrate 
the  anniversary  of  their  admission  into  the  Union.  The  reason 
for  California's  celebration  of  that  anniversary  is  well  founded. 
You  will  recall  that  the  delay  incident  to  the  admission  of  Cali- 
fornia into  the  Union  as  a  State  was  precipitated  by  the  tense 
struggle  then  raging  in  Congress  between  the  North  and  the 
South.  The  admission  of  Wisconsin  had  made  a  tie,  fifteen  free 
States  and  fifteen  slave  States.  The  destiny  of  the  nation  hung 
upon  the  result  of  that  issue,  and  when  California  finally  entered 
the  Union,  it  came  in  as  the  sixteenth  free  state,  forever  destroyed 
the  equilibrium  between  the  North  and  the  South,  and  made  the 
Civil  War  practically  inevitable.  The  debate  was  a  battle  of 
giants.  Webster,  Clay,  and  Calhoun  all  took  part  in  it.  Cal- 
houn  had  arisen  from  his  death-bed,  to  fight  the  admission  of 
California,  and,  upon  reaching  his  seat  in  the  Senate,  found  him- 
self so  overcome  with  weakness  and  pain  that  he  had  Mason  of 
Virginia  read  the  speech  he  had  prepared  in  writing.  Webster 
atoned  for  his  hostility  to  the  Pacific  Coast  before  the  Mexican 
War  by  answering  Calhoun.  "I  do  not  hesitate  to  avow  in  the 
presence  of  the  living  God  that  if  you  seek  to  drive  us  from  Cal- 
ifornia ...  I  am  for  disunion,"  declared  Robert  Toombs,  of 

i  Jennison  vs.  Kirk,  98  U.S.,  453. 


106  THE  PACIFIC  OCEAN  IN  HISTORY 

Georgia,  to  an  applauding  House.  "The  unity  of  our  empire 
hangs  upon  the  decision  of  this  day,"  answered  Seward  in  the 
Senate.  National  history  was  being  made  with  a  vengeance, 
and  California  was  the  theme.  The  contest  was  an  inspiring 
one,  and  a  reading  of  the  Congressional  Record  covering  the 
period  makes  a  Californian's  blood  tingle  with  the  intensity  of  it 
all. 

The  struggle  had  been  so  prolonged,  however,  that  the  people 
upon  this  coast,  far  removed  from  the  scene  of  it,  and  feeling  more 
than  all  else  that  they  were  entitled  to  be  protected  by  a  system 
of  laws,  grew  impatient.  They  finally  proceeded  in  a  charac- 
teristically Californian  way.  They  met  in  legislative  assembly 
and  proclaimed :  "  It  is  the  duty  of  the  government  of  the  United 
States  to  give  us  laws ;  and  when  that  duty  is  not  performed  one 
of  the  clearest  rights  we  have  left  is  to  govern  ourselves." 

The  first  provisional  government  meeting  was  held  in  the 
pueblo  of  San  Jose,  December  11,  1848,  and  unanimously  recom- 
mended that  a  general  convention  be  held  at  the  pueblo  of  San 
Jose  on  the  second  Monday  of  January  following.  At  San  Fran- 
cisco a  similar  provisional  meeting  was  held,  though  the  date  of 
the  proposed  convention  was  fixed  for  the  first  Monday  in  March, 
1849,  and  afterwards  changed  to  the  first  Monday  in  August. 

The  various  assemblies  which  had  placed  other  conditions  and 
fixed  other  dates  and  places  for  the  holding  of  the  same,  gave 
way,  and  a  general  election  was  finally  held  under  the  provisions 
of  a  proclamation  issued  by  General  Bennet  Riley,  the  United 
States  General  commanding,  a  proclamation  for  the  issuance  of 
which  there  was  no  legislative  warrant  whatever.  While  the 
Legislative  Assembly  of  San  Francisco  recognized  his  military 
authority,  in  which  capacity  he  was  not  formidable,  it  did  not 
recognize  his  civil  power.  General  Riley,  however,  with  that 
rare  diplomacy  which  seems  to  have  attached  to  all  federal  mili- 
tary people  when  acting  on  the  Pacific  Coast,  realizing  that  any 
organized  government  that  proceeded  from  an  orderly  concourse 
of  the  people  was  preferable  to  the  exasperating  condition  in 
which  the  community  was  left  to  face  its  increasing  problem  under 
Congressional  inaction,  himself  issued  the  proclamation  for  a 
general  convention,  which  is  itself  a  gem.  The  delegates  met  in 


THE  HISTORY  OF  CALIFORNIA  107 

Monterey,  at  Colt  on  Hall,  on  the  1st  of  September,  and  organized 
on  the  3d  of  September,  1849. 

The  convention  was  one  of  the  keenest  and  most  intelligent 
that  ever  assembled  for  the  fulfillment  of  a  legislative  responsi- 
bility. Six  of  the  delegates  had  resided  in  California  less  than 
six  months,  while  only  twenty-one,  exclusive  of  the  seven  native 
Californians,  had  resided  here  for  more  than  three  years.  The 
average  age  of  all  the  delegates  was  36  years.  The  debates  of 
that  convention  should  be  familiar  to  every  citizen  of  this  State. 
No  Californian  should  be  unfamiliar  with  the  great  debate  on 
what  was  to  constitute  the  eastern  boundary  of  the  State  of  Cali- 
fornia, a  debate  accompanied  by  an  intensity  of  feeling  which  in 
the  end  almost  wrecked  the  convention.  The  dramatic  scenes 
wrought  by  the  patriotism  that  saved  the  wrecking  of  the  con- 
vention stand  out  in  bold  relief.  The  constitution  adopted  by 
this  convention  was  ratified  November  13,  1849,  and  at  the  same 
election  an  entire  State  and  legislative  ticket,  with  two  represent- 
atives to  Congress,  was  chosen.  The  senators  and  assembly- 
men-elect met  in  San  Jose  on  December  15,  1849.  On  December 
20,  1849,  the  State  government  of  California  was  established  and 
Governor  Peter  H.  Burnett  was  inaugurated  as  the  first  Governor 
of  the  State  of  California,  and  soon  thereafter  William  M.  Gwin 
and  John  C.  Fremont  were  elected  the  first  United  States  Senators 
from  the  State  of  California.  Notwithstanding  the  fact  that  there 
had  never  been  any  territorial  form  of  government,  notwithstand- 
ing the  fact  that  California  had  not  yet  been  admitted  into  the 
Union,  these  men  were  all  elected  as  members  of  the  State  govern- 
ment, and  the  United  States  Senators  and  members  of  Congress 
started  for  Washington  to  help  get  the  State  admitted. 

Immediately  upon  the  inauguration  of  Governor  Burnett,  Gen- 
eral Riley  issued  this  remarkable  proclamation: 

"  To  the  People  of  California :  A  new  executive  having  been 
elected  and  installed  into  office,  in  accordance  with  the  provisions 
of  the  constitution  of  the  State,  the  undersigned  hereby  resigns 
his  powers  as  Governor  of  California.  In  thus  dissolving  his 
official  connection  with  the  people  of  this  country  he  would  tender 
to  them  his  heartfelt  thanks  for  their  many  kind  attentions  and 
for  the  uniform  support  which  they  have  given  to  the  measures 


108  THE  PACIFIC  OCEAN  IN  HISTORY 

of  his  administration.  The  principal  object  of  all  his  wishes  is 
now  accomplished  —  the  people  have  a  government  of  their 
own  choice,  and  one  which,  under  the  favor  of  Divine  Providence, 
will  secure  their  own  prosperity  and  happiness  and  the  permanent 
welfare  of  the  new  State." 

No  matter  what  the  legal  objections  to  this  course  might  be, 
notwithstanding  the  fact  that  Congress  had  as  yet  passed  no  bill 
for  the  admission  of  California  as  a  State  into  the  Union,  and 
might  never  pass  one,  California  broke  all  precedents  by  declaring 
itself  a  State,  and  a  free  State  at  that,  and  sent  its  representatives 
to  Washington  to  hurry  up  the  passage  of  the  bill  which  should 
admit  it  into  the  Union. 

The  brilliant  audacity  of  California's  method  of  admission  into 
the  Union  stands  without  parallel  in  the  history  of  the  nation. 
Outside  of  the  original  thirteen  colonies  she  was  the  only  State 
carved  out  of  the  national  domain  which  was  admitted  into  the 
Union  without  a  previous  enabling  act  or  territorial  apprentice- 
ship. What  was  called  the  State  of  Deseret  tried  it  and  failed, 
and  the  annexation  of  Texas  was  the  annexation  of  a  foreign  re- 
public. The  so-called  State  of  Transylvania  and  State  of  Frank- 
lin had  been  attempted  secessions  of  western  counties  of  the  origi- 
nal States  of  Virginia  and  North  Carolina,  respectively,  and  their 
abortive  attempts  at  admission  were  addressed  to  the  Continental 
Congress  and  not  to  the  Congress  of  the  United  States.  With  full 
right,  then,  did  California,  by  express  resolution  spreading  the 
explanation  upon  the  minutes  of  her  constitutional  convention,1 
avowedly  place  upon  her  great  seal  her  Minerva  —  her  "  robed 
goddess-in-arms,"  —  not  as  the  goddess  of  wisdom,  not  as  the 
goddess  of  war,  but  to  signify  that  as  Minerva  was  not  born  but 
sprang  full-armed  from  the  brain  of  Jupiter,  so  California,  without 
territorial  childhood,  sprang  full-grown  into  the  sisterhood  of 
states. 

When  it  is  remembered  that  California  was  not  admitted  into 
the  Union  till  September  9,  1850,  and  yet  that  the  first  session  of 
its  State  legislature  had  met,  legislated,  and  adjourned  by  April  22, 
1850,  some  appreciation  may  be  had  of  the  speed  limit  —  if  there 

1  J.  Ross  Browne,  Debates  in  the  Convention  of  California  on  the  Formation  of  th« 
Constitution  in  1849,  pp.  304,  322,  323. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  CALIFORNIA  109 

was  a  limit.  The  record  of  the  naive  self-sufficiency  of  that 
legislature  is  little  short  of  amazing. 

On  February  9,  1850,  seven  months  before  the  admission  of  the 
State,  it  coolly  passed  the  following  resolution:  "That  the  Gov- 
ernor be,  and  he  is  hereby  authorized  and  requested,  to  cause  to 
be  procured,  and  prepared  in  the  manner  prescribed  by  the  Wash- 
ington Monument  Association,  a  block  of  California  marble,  cin- 
nabar, gold  quartz,  or  granite  of  suitable  dimensions,  with  the 
word  *  California'  chiselled  on  its  face,  and  that  he  cause  the  same 
to  be  forwarded  to  the  Managers  of  the  Washington  Monument 
Association  in  the  City  of  Washington,  District  of  Columbia, 
to  constitute  a  portion  of  the  monument  now  being  erected  in  that 
city  to  the  memory  of  George  Washington."  California  did  not 
intend  to  be  absent  from  any  feast,  or  left  out  of  any  procession 
—  not  if  she  knew  it.  And  the  resolution  was  obeyed  —  the 
stone  was  cut  from  a  marble-bed  on  a  ranch  just  outside  Placer- 
ville,  and  is  now  in  the  monument ! 

On  April  13,  1850,  nearly  five  months  before  California  was 
admitted  into  the  Union,  that  legislature  gaily  passed  an  act 
consisting  of  this  provision:  "The  Common  law  of  England,  so 
far  as  it  is  not  repugnant  to  or  inconsistent  with  the  constitution 
of  the  United  States,  or  the  constitution  or  laws  of  the  State  of 
California,  shall  be  the  rule  of  the  decision  in  all  the  Courts  of  the 
State." 

Among  other  things,  three  joint  resolutions  were  passed,  one 
demanding  of  the  Federal  Government  not  only  a  change  in  the 
manner  of  transporting  the  mails,  but  also  in  the  manner  of  their 
distribution  at  San  Francisco,  a  second  urging  upon  Congress  the 
importance  of  authorizing,  as  soon  as  practicable,  the  construction 
of  a  national  railroad  from  the  Pacific  Ocean  to  the  Mississippi 
River, — not  from  the  Mississippi  River  to  the  Pacific  Ocean,  but 
from  the  Pacific  Ocean  to  the  Mississippi  River,  —  and  a  third 
urging  appropriate  grants  of  land  by  the  general  government  to 
each  commissioned  officer  of  the  Army  of  the  United  States  who 
faithfully  and  honorably  served  out  a  complete  term  of  service  in 
the  war  with  Mexico.  Each  of  the  last  two  resolutions,  with 
grim  determination,  and  without  a  suspicion  of  humor,  contained 
this  further  resolution :  "  That  His  Excellency,  the  Governor,  be 


110  THE  PACIFIC  OCEAN  IN  HISTORY 

requested  to  forward  to  each  of  our  Senators  and  Representatives 
in  Congress  a  certified  copy  of  this  joint  resolution." 

These  resolutions  were  passed  five  months  before  the  State  was 
admitted  into  the  Union.  If  the  Senators  and  Representatives 
were  not  yet  actually  "in  Congress," — well,  they  were  at  least 
in  Washington  —  and  busy.  The  desire  to  be  admitted  into  the 
Union  had  developed  into  a  yearning  to  be  considered  a  part  of 
the  Union,  had  ripened  into  a  conviction  that  the  State  was, 
potentially  at  least,  actually  a  part  of  the  Union,  a  yearning  and 
a  conviction  that  became  almost  pathetic  in  their  intensity. 
The  legislature  adjourned,  and  for  nearly  five  months  the  popu- 
lation of  San  Francisco  assembled  on  the  Plaza  on  the  arrival 
of  every  Panama  steamer,  waiting  —  waiting  —  waiting  for  the 
answer,  which  when  it  did  come  (in  October,  1850)  was  celebrated 
with  an  abandon  of  joy  that  has  never  been  equalled  on  any  suc- 
ceeding Ninth  of  September. 

Californians  are  recreant  to  their  heritage  when  they  are  igno- 
rant of  the  lives  and  experiences  of  those  who  preceded  them  on 
this  coast.  This  history  is  part  of  the  history  of  the  nation. 
The  record  of  the  achievement  of  the  empire-builders  of  this  coast 
is  one  that  inspires  civic  pride  and  a  reverence  for  their  memories. 
Why  should  the  story  remain  practically  unknown  ?  Why  should 
every  little  unimportant  detail  of  the  petty  incidents  of  Queen 
Anne's  War,  and  King  Philip's  War,  and  Braddock's  campaign 
be  crammed  into  the  heads  of  children  who  until  lately  never 
heard  the  name  of  Portola  ?  The  beautiful  story  of  Paul  Revere's 
ride  is  known  to  every  one,  but  how  many  know  the  story  of  the 
invincible  determination  in  the  building  of  Ugarte's  ship?  Wil- 
liam Penn's  honest  treatment  of  the  Indians  is  a  household  word 
to  people  who  never  knew  of  the  existence  of  Galvez  or  Junipero 
Serra.  The  story  of  the  hardships  of  the  New  England  pilgrims 
in  the  first  winter  on  the  "stern  and  rock-bound  coast"  of  Massa- 
chusetts, is  not  more  pitiful  than  that  of  the  fate  of  the  immi- 
grants at  Donner  Lake.  Longfellow's  "Courtship  of  Miles  Stand- 
ish  and  Priscilla"  is  found  in  every  book  of  school  declamations, 
but  Bret  Harte's  poem  of  the  tragic  love-story  of  Rezanov  and 
Concha  Arguello  only  in  complete  editions  of  his  works.  Why 
herald  the  ridiculous  attempt  of  Rhode  Island  to  keep  out  of  the 


THE  HISTORY  OF  CALIFORNIA  111 

Union,  and  not  acclaim  the  splendid  effort  of  California  to  break 
into  it  ?  Why  exhaust  our  enthusiasm  on  the  charming  anecdotage 
of  Chauncey  Depew  and  ignore  the  flaming  eloquence  of  Thomas 
Starr  King  and  E.  D.  Baker?  How  many  have  ever  read  the 
proclamation  issued  by  Commodore  Sloat  to  his  marines  when  he 
sent  the  landing-party  ashore  to  hoist  the  colors  at  Monterey,  — 
a  proclamation  that  has  all  the  dignity  of  a  ritual,  and  should  be 
learned  by  heart  as  a  part  of  his  education  by  every  school-boy 
in  California? 

Let  me  not  be  misunderstood.  I  would  detract  nothing  from 
the  glory  of  other  sections  of  the  country.  I  would  minimize 
nothing  of  any  State's  accomplishment.  Some  of  them  have  a 
record  that  is  almost  a  synonym  for  patriotism.  Their  tradition 
is  our  inheritance;  their  achievement  is  our  gain.  Wisconsin 
cannot  become  a  veritable  workshop  of  social  and  economic  ex- 
periment without  the  nation  being  the  beneficiary.  New  England 
does  not  enrich  her  own  literature  without  shedding  luster  on  the 
literature  of  the  nation.  They  and  theirs  belong  also  to  us  and 
to  ours.  Least  of  all  do  I  forget  the  old  Bay  State  and  her  high 
tradition — State  of  Hancock  and  Warren,  of  John  Quincy  Adams 
and  Webster,  of  Sumner  and  Phillips  and  Garrison  and  John  A. 
Andrew,  of  Longfellow  and  Lowell  and  Whittier  and  Holmes. 
Her  hopes  are  my  hopes ;  her  fears  are  my  fears.  May  my  heart 
cease  its  beating,  if,  in  any  presence  or  any  under  pressure,  it  fail 
to  respond  an  Amen  to  the  Puritan's  prayer,  "God  save  the 
commonwealth  of  Massachusetts." 

But,  Gentlemen  of  the  American  Historical  Association,  if  they 
belong  to  us,  we  also  belong  to  them.  If  their  traditions  belong 
to  us,  so  also  our  tradition  belongs  to  them.  We  simply  ask  that 
California  be  given  her  proper  proportionate  place  in  the  history 
of  the  country.  California  simply  wants  her  "place  in  the  sun." 

Possibly  we  have  been  ourselves  somewhat  to  blame.  Possibly 
in  the  whirl  of  introducing  the  evidence  during  the  trial  we  have 
been  somewhat  neglectful  of  the  state  of  the  record.  When  I 
find  myself  among  historians  I  am  somewhat  puzzled  to  reflect 
that  when  they  read  papers  at  great  historical  congresses,  they 
sometimes  omit  the  objective  facts  of  history,  and  the  more 
eminent  of  them  are  sometimes  tempted  to  philosophize.  When 


112  THE  PACIFIC  OCEAN  IN  HISTORY 

they  are  through  philosophizing,  they  prophesy.  May  I  too  be 
permitted,  for  a  moment,  to  forget  that  this  is  an  historical  con- 
gress ?  May  I,  too,  be  permitted  to  philosophize  a  little,  —  if 
not  to  prophesy  ?  Wendell  Phillips  used  to  say  —  and  he  loved 
to  rub  it  in  —  "Men  make  history;  scholars  write  it!"  Here 
in  California  live  a  people,  and  the  descendants  of  a  people,  drawn 
from  the  ends  of  the  earth.  Here  is  the  melting-pot  of  the  nations. 
It  is  a  people  keenly  alive  to  the  problems  of  the  present.  Its 
environment  has  thrown  it  back  upon  itself  and  made  it  a  resource- 
ful people.  It  is  a  virile  people,  confident  and  unafraid.  It  is 
the  most  democratic  people  in  the  world  —  even  the  women 
vote.  It  employs  the  latest  governmental  methods  and  sanctions 
without  having  any  longer  even  a  consciousness  of  then*  novelty. 
The  surmounting  of  physical  obstruction  and  the  perfecting  of 
mechanical  invention  is  the  record  of  its  daily  experience.  It  is 
a  young  people  —  with  its  child-heart  intact,  with  all  youth's 
contempt  for  obstacles.  It  can  with  incredible  courage  rebuild  a 
metropolis  from  its  ashes,  and  in  the  celebration  of  the  uniting  of 
the  oceans  it  can  evoke  the  admiration  of  the  world  with  two 
expositions  instead  of  one,  each  an  enduring  lesson  of  challenging 
beauty. 

Is  it  any  wonder  that,  when  we  stop  to  look  backward  or  to 
write  our  record,  we  are  distracted  by  the  scenes  and  problems  of 
the  everlasting  present :  governmental  problems,  social  problems, 
industrial  problems,  international  problems,  world  problems? 
We  see  the  canal  finished  before  our  eyes.  The  seat  of  empire 
begins  to  shift  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific.  In  this  very 
congress,  whose  sessions  are  now  closing,  you  have  been  given  the 
historical  background  and  framework  of  the  new  arena.  The 
prophecy  of  William  Henry  Seward  is  being  made  a  reality.  The 
vision  of  Alexander  von  Humboldt  is  coming  true.  We  cannot 
resist  the  call  of  the  blood.  Though  we  have  a  just  pride  in  our 
forbears  and  love  our  State's  traditions,  and  wish  to  promote  and 
perpetuate  a  knowledge  of  them,  and  though  some  of  us  call  our- 
selves Native  Sons  of  the  Golden  West,  I  have  a  feeling  that  in 
intellect,  in  temperament,  in  environment,  and,  it  may  be,  hi 
opportunity,  we  are  still  —  the  Pioneers. 


Mr- 


'• .  BORROWED 


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